All About Niche Cards!

Alright, so here's the deal. This thread is for proposing and discussing cards with very specific metagame niches (or potential metagame niches if one card/deck became more widely played). A great example would be Heatmor DEX if everyone and their dog ran Durant. I say would though, because that'll probably never happen. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Heatmor is a Durant counter, so although it's a niche card, it's not very interesting to discuss.

I'm also gonna impose some rules to help keep the thread going and keep it interesting. Hope I'm not being too dictatorial!

Rules:
1. Try and include a suggested niche card in every post you make! I realize you won't always be able to, but if every post in the thread is interesting, then it's gotta be an interesting thread!
2. If proposing a niche card, be sure to explain it's purpose in the metagame (or potential metagame).
3. If you're proposing a card, give a link or image-link so that people can be brought up to speed easily!

I'll start us off with a few cards that have caught people's eye in the past and present.

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Bellsprout TM - Bellsprout gained popularity when Trainer lock was bigger than ever. Decks like the Truth and Gothitelle were reigning supreme, so decks like ZPST and ReshiPhlosion looked to a tech that could pull out a Vileplume or Reuniclus from the bench to bring down their respective strategy (provided they couldn't retreat). Bellsprout was that card, since it's attack was a Catcher in trainer lock.

Spinarak HS - Spinarak is so nichey it's ridiculous. Spinarak served only as a hard-counter to Chandelure NVI and The Truth. If either deck brought out a Cleffa or Pichu under trainer lock and tried to sleep-stall, one Spinarak with a grass energy was all it would take to win the game. You just had to stall til the last turn, then retreat and kill the baby for the KO.

Cryogonal NVI 32 - The Donphan counter for ZekEels. Cryogonal could be charged in one turn thanks to Dynamotor and a manual attachment, and can 1HKO Donphan. This one saw limited play at best, but I know a friend who took 2nd at a City Champs in HS-NVI that teched one for the Donphan matchup. He won game 2 of the finals by donking a Cyndaquil with Cryogonal on T2. :P

And now, one more. This one is for the current metagame and is the result of Heatmor hype.

Luvdisc TM - Without needing to add DCE into the deck, Luvdisc provides an attacker that works with the Level Ball search engine that can hit for only 1 Prism energy (or rainbow) and with a Black Belt, can 1HKO Heatmor. It's the budget option over running Mewtwo EX, and as I mentioned, you don't have to dilute your energy lines in the process to get the Black Belt KO. Durant could also tech a Pluspower and Junk Arm for a second one to 1HKO which doesn't use up your supporter per turn. That sounds like a poor idea... but it very well could work wonders since you at least have plenty of Junk Arms in deck.

Anyone else have some fun techy cards they know of or think have potential in the current metagame? A cautionary note, this is a thread for cards that serve a specific purpose, not cards that do another card's job badly.

The use for Pinsir that I've heard is dealing with Terrakion-focused that only attach one energy per turn. In theory, if you can get Pinsir out early and knock energy off every turn, they will never be able to attack (or at least will be forced to use things like Tyrogue and Mewtwo that can attack with one or zero energy cards played in the turn). In practice it usually doesn't work this well and most decks have a better response to Pinsir, and decks with energy acceleration just laugh at it. But if your Zeels is running into lots of Terrakion decks it might be worth trying; it's level ball, dual ball, and pokemon collector searchable so not that hard to find, and uses colorless energy, so you can accelerate it with Eelektrik or use Double Colorless Energy. (You could also put it in CMT as a Terrakion counter I guess, since the attack will OHKO as well and you have grass energy, but I don't think it's necessary and I prefer Virizion EP personally.)

Against anything that runs energy acceleration, which is almost everything else in the format, it won't do very much for you at all. I guess if you went first with it against Durant you could cause them some issues? But again, there's usually a better solution.

I've seen Pinsir teched into CMT as a Terrakion counter for more than just Power Pinch. Obviously because it 1HKO's Terrakions with Grip and Squeeze, but also provides the deck with some energy stranding options which can be effective against opposing CMT decks. CMT usually didn't run energy recovery (couldn't find the space) so losing a grass energy was often annoying. It could target DCE but I've also heard people ran a more disruptive CMT list with at least one Lost Remover for that, when they ran Pinsir.

Overall... an interesting tech, and I definitely agree a nichey card. I like Virizion EPO better for making mono-terrakion an auto-win though, while also providing an attacker that can 1HKO Eels. If you're gonna be an energy hog and take up 3 cards while you're doing it, you might as well at least hit for a minimum of 90.

I've seen Pinsir teched into CMT as a Terrakion counter for more than just Power Pinch. Obviously because it 1HKO's Terrakions with Grip and Squeeze, but also provides the deck with some energy stranding options which can be effective against opposing CMT decks. CMT usually didn't run energy recovery (couldn't find the space) so losing a grass energy was often annoying. It could target DCE but I've also heard people ran a more disruptive CMT list with at least one Lost Remover for that, when they ran Pinsir.

Overall... an interesting tech, and I definitely agree a nichey card. I like Virizion EPO better for making mono-terrakion an auto-win though, while also providing an attacker that can 1HKO Eels. If you're gonna be an energy hog and take up 3 cards while you're doing it, you might as well at least hit for a minimum of 90.

Click to expand...

Huh, I didn't see any energy disruption CMT decks but I like the idea. I always ran at least a little energy recovery in CMT (mostly for Durant!) but not enough to be consistent, and that would still have annoyed me. 80 HP, though. So low... At least the Eel can't retreat and so they have to have a switch in hand, if you use Grip and Squeeze? I can only see it in a techy list but it would be fun to try.